Yoon Hoo, the son of singer Yoon Min-soo, was catapulted to
stardom by “eating voraciously” on MBC’s high-rating reality show “Where Are We
Going, Dad?” Choo Sa-rang, the daughter of Korean-Japanese combat sports star
Choo Sung-hoon, is winning the hearts of viewers mainly for her “eating” scenes
on KBS’s variety program “Superman Returns.” Ha Jung-woo is often portrayed as
an actor who is good at “meokbang,” a new broadcasting term in Korean, which
means “eating well” on screen.

Watching someone eat on TV is becoming a
bizarre trend in Korea. As “meokbang” gives viewers vicarious pleasure, a
growing number of TV shows are competitively obsessed with providing eating
scenes.

First aired in November, a cable drama series “Let’s Eat” on tvN,
the first of its kind, has been gaining popularity. The show features the eating
scenes of characters who live alone. Based on romance and everyday routines, the
drama portrays the female character played by Lee Soo-kyung relishing eating. In
the drama, Lee plays the role of a 33-year-old divorcee who is happy to be
living alone. One of her pleasures is food. Goo Dae-young played by Yoon
Doo-joon, a member of K-pop group BEAST, is another foodie who lives alone too.

Park Joon-hwa, producer of the drama, said that Korean dramas have lots
of eating scenes in which conflict erupts or settles down. “The drama focuses on
building relationships between strangers through having a meal and ultimately
relieving their solitude. It portrays the process of how people improve
relations via food,” he said.

“The Hungry Woman,” based on the eponymous
webtoon, deals with a single woman’s life in her 30s and connects it with food.
It has so far had more than 3.2 million views on Naver’s TV cast. Yoon Sung-ho,
director of the film, said that the recent trend is adding eating scenes to the
ordinary story. “Isolated individuals find consolation by seeing others eating.
Meokbang is a symptom of our society’s loneliness,” Yoon said.

The recent
fad in watching someone eating is attributed to an increasing number of the
one-person households in Korea. According to Statistics Korea, one-person
households represented 9.1 percent of the total in 1990, 12.9 percent in 1995,
15.7 percent in 2000, 20.2 percent in 2005, and 24.2 percent in 2010.

The
steep rise is attributed to the increasing number of young singles in their 20s
and 30s who leave their parents, as well as those who don’t marry or get
divorced along with the elderly who survive their spouses. Cultural critics said
that those who live alone feel loneliness and find more vicarious pleasure by
seeing someone eating.

The trend was provoked by Afreeca TV, the online
channel, which aired the live-streaming service of eating enormous amounts of
foods by its broadcasting jockey since 2009. CNN reported in February that
the show hosted by Park Seo-yeon airs hours-long eating scenes. After eating
various kinds of large quantities of food such as pizza or beef, Park talks to
her fans in a chat room which accompanies her live-stream channel.“A lot of
my viewers are on diet and they say they live vicariously through me, or they
are hospital patients who only have access to hospital food so they also watch
my broadcasts to see me eat. Fans who are on a diet say that they like eating
vicariously through me,” CNN quoted Park as saying.The program’s fans are
mostly women and her show is more popular with women than with men. CNN also
quoted professor Park Sung-hee of Ewha University’s Division of Media Studies as
saying that for Koreans, eating is an extremely social, communal activity,
explaining why the Korean word “sikgu” means “those who eat together.” And
Koreans hate eating alone.

Following Japan?

For
a long time, cooking and food have been a central element of fiction in Japanese
TV dramas. Korean shows seem to follow Japanese social and cultural trends to
some degree.

In the 2000s, Japan’s NTV aired “Food Fight,” a popular
drama series, based on an eating competition, and revolving around love and
friendship. Also, “Late Night Diner,” which was first broadcast in 2009, deals
with customers who come to a restaurant which opens at midnight. In the drama,
people with diverse stories share them with others while eating.

Also,
“Lonesome Gourmets” began airing its season 3 in 2012, and “Ms Hana’s Cooking”
portrays a housewife’s cooking recipe, while “Just Eating” focuses on the eating
binges of a man and a woman.

However, this is a cultural difference
compared with TV shows from Western countries. On Western TV, cooking or food on
screen is basically nonfictional, usually seen in teaching how-to-cook to the
audience, except for cases in which characters gather to eat in a certain
restaurant or bar.

The National Museum of Korea (NMK) has been ambitious in
purchasing of Asian artworks since moving into its massive complex in Yongsan,
downtown Seoul, in 2005. The museum’s new exhibition, "New Acquisitions of Asian
Art," provides the first glimpse into this expanding collection.

The
display features 66 items, including highly-rated treasures from China, Japan,
India and Southeast Asian nations. They represent the cream of the crop of the
museum’s assemblage of non-Korean artifacts, now at around 400, says NMK
director Kim Young-na.

"I think this will provide a great opportunity for
visitors to expand their knowledge of the artistic heritage of other Asian
nations and celebrate the diversity in cultures," Kim said.

“Goddess,’’
India, 10th century

About half the artifacts
in display are from China, from the bronze ware of Shang Dynasty (1,600
B.C.-1,046 B.C.) to artworks of Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). For visitors,
sophisticated ceramic works, paintings and calligraphies can be educational as
they are beautiful, with the museum providing a smooth explanation on how
Chinese styles influenced the artifacts of Korea in respective
periods.

''Human Figure,’’ an 8th century pottery piece from the Tang
Dynasty (618-907), could be argued as the highlight of the museum.

The
37.7-centimeter horse-rider figure with fading colors is valuable because it is
believed to depict a woman, judging from the round cheeks, beardless chin and
make-up on the lips.

"It’s notable that the woman is dressed in male
attire for horse-riding. These were during a time when horse riding became more
common among women and male garments would have been more convenient for such
activities than women’s dresses of that time," said one of the curators at the
museum.

The museum’s new acquisitions from Japan include pottery, masks
and paintings from the Edo Period (1603-1867).

“Merrymaking in a Grand Mansion,”
2.8-meter long folding screen painting created in the 17th century, is another
must-see, portraying people of high social status enjoying themselves in a
luxury leisure mansion. There are people dancing to music and playing card games
and women taking a bath.

"Goddess," a 10th century statue from India, is
one of the eye-catching artifacts in India and Southeast Asian art corner, most
of which are about Buddhist arts.The 81-centimeter-tall statue is made of
red sandstone and is notable for its voluptuous description of the female
body.

Other than Indian arts, statues of Buddhist gods and goddesses
from Thailand and Indonesia are also displayed, representing each country’s
independent characteristics in Buddhist art.

The exhibition runs through
June 22. For more information, call (02) 2077-9552 or visit
www.museum.go.kr.

Love seemed to be a universal
concept that embraced all. Recently, however, a national institute released a
new definition of the concept that excludes minorities, in particular same-sex
partners.

The National Institute of the Korean Language
(NIKL) came out with a new definition of the word love — a feeling or affection
for a person of the opposite sex.

According to the
institute, which establishes language policies and updates the national
dictionary, the concept of love exists only between a man and a woman, except
when referring to love for friends, family, inanimate objects or country. The
NIKL announced the new definition on March 31.

This is not
the first time the institute changed the meaning of the word. Love used to be
defined as a “feeling or instance of longing passionately for a partner of
another sex by being attracted to the partner’s allure.” Five university
students asked the NIKL to expand the definition because it seemed
“discriminative to sexual minorities.” Thus, in November 2012, it replaced the
phrase “partner of another sex” with “somebody.”

Given that
Korean society is still closed for the most part to sexual minorities, the
NIKL’s move was a bold step toward acknowledging that same-sex partners can love
each other in a romantic or sexual way.

However, the
institute’s decision invited complaints, mostly from conservative Christian
groups. The Commission of Churches in Korea urged the institute to scrap the
revision in October, saying, “Deleting ‘partner of another sex’ from the
definition of love can be interpreted as defending
homosexuality.”

In response, the NIKL said the revision was
not intended to promote homosexuality, but to reflect the current use of the
word in Korean society. Nevertheless, the institute said it will review the
definition of love once again and change it to reflect conventional
perception.

“We
change the meaning of words after receiving revision requests from many people
through various means such as the Internet and telephone,” said an NIKL
researcher surnamed Han.

The NIKL reviews the definition of
words every quarter. During the reviews, researchers and linguists discuss the
definitions based on their use and opinions from citizens and
experts.

Han explained that the institute’s latest revision
of the definition of love reflects opinions that the term “somebody” was too
broad and vague.

“If they changed the meaning based on
ordinary usage, they had to stand by that revision,” a Korean language teacher
at a university said on condition of anonymity. However, the teacher questioned
how much people’s use of the word love could have changed significantly in less
than two years.

The Solidarity for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Human Rights of Korea released a statement on March 31 that
limiting the meaning of love to something that exists only between a man and a
woman clearly discriminates against sexual minorities.

“The
NIKL’s move is against the new Korean society, which accepts differences,” it
said in the statement.

Young Koreans interviewed agreed that
defining love is quite difficult but that the definition of love should not be
limited in terms of gender.

“When I was younger, I believed
there was only one type of love — Eros,” said Hwang Dan-bi, 23, a senior at a
four-year college.

She said she is straight but doesn’t
think the word love should be defined as a feeling only between a man and a
woman.

“As I grew older, I realized that love isn’t just
about the heart beating fast. I think love can be enjoying delicious food,
strolling down a street and sharing thoughts with someone
else.”

“If I share those feelings with a friend of the same
sex, shouldn’t I call it love?” Hwang asked.

She said she
has a number of gay and bisexual friends whom she met during her stay in Canada
last year. At that time, she realized that people of other sexual orientations
are no different from straight people.

“They longed for love
and boasted about what they did with their same-sex partners. And they were
excited to plan their next dates, just like me. If the word love is defined as
affection between a man and a woman, what should we call their feelings then?”
she said.

A college freshman surnamed Lim, a lesbian, also
said love is just an honest emotion.

“I can express my
feelings, without display, to my girlfriend. We are just who we are to each
other, and we are not just same-sex friends. I think it is love,” Lim
said.

Regardless of one’s sexual orientation, some people
say that love doesn’t have one exact definition. They have their own meaning of
love based on their experiences.

“Love is the feeling of
deep affection toward all creatures,” said Gil Min-sub, 29, an office
worker.

“I think love is an irrational, illogical emotion
because it is something that’s hard to define,” said Kim Yeon-joo, 24, a college
senior.

Older citizens interviewed, however, have mixed
opinions about the NIKL’s new definition of love.

“I am a
Christian, so I’m just being honest when I say I’m anti-gay,” said a civil
servant in her 50s. “But I’m still unconvinced that deleting the phrase ‘partner
of another sex’ promotes homosexuality,” she said.

“In
Korea, love is still widely considered as a feeling between people of opposite
sexes. If the NIKL reflects that, then it’s an appropriate move,” Kim
Chang-hwan, 48, said.

Should
we define love?

Renowned
linguist Roland Barthes said language is “quite simply fascist.” This is because
words affect how people perceive a concept. When we refuse to accept a different
meaning of a word and regard it as wrong, we are tacitly allowing ourselves to
be compromised by discrimination.

As the NIKL said, a word’s
definition should reflect its current use. However, many people have pointed out
that the NIKL’s new definition of love disregards the existence of sexual
minorities in the country. It implies that a gay couple’s relationship is not
love even though they do the same things a straight couple
does.

Barthes also said, “To try to write love is to
confront the muck of language; that region of hysteria where language is both
too much and too little, excessive and impoverished.”

A gay
man in his 30s who declined to be named said love is a simple, unsophisticated
feeling.

“For me, the feeling of love isn’t something big.
It is the feeling of wanting to take off my jacket and cover my partner because
the weather is cold,” he said.

“I think love is the desire
to take good care of someone, which comes from the heart,” he
added.

Perhaps this issue may be meaningless to those who do
not have a special someone, but it is nevertheless something worth thinking
about.